A Review on Candidiasis and Opportunistic Mycosis in Human and Animals

Abstract

DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/9-9-01

Publication date:May 31^st 2019

INTRODUCTION

CANDIDIOSIS

Candida albicans (C. albicans) is part of the normal microbial flora in human beings and domestic animals, and is associated with the mucous surfaces of the oral cavity, gastrointestinal tract and vagina. Immune dysfunction can allow C. albicans to switch from a commensal to a pathogenic organism capable of infecting a variety of tissues and causing a possibly fatal systemic disease (Traynor and Huffnagle, 2001). Mucosal infection is the most usual form of the disease but cutaneous lesions are seen on occasion (Lehmann, 1985).

In cattle, as a consequence of the abundant use, and occasional abuse, of antibiotics in the treatment of mastitis, there is a selection of flora, mainly members of the genus Candida, that are new etiological agents of these processes, which are initially difficult to diagnose because their presence is not expected. Candidiasis in birds is related to malnutrition and stress, generally produced by the same strains that are found naturally on the food plants of these animals. Arthritis caused by yeasts in horses is relatively frequent as a consequence of contamination of wounds or after surgical treatment. In pigs, candidiasis usually takes the form of digestive alterations in young animals, and is usually related to problems that predispose to the disease, like treatment with antibiotics (Garcia and Blanco, 2000). C. albicans is a common causative agent of stomatitis in the dog (Jadhav and Pal, 2006). Although fungi need pre deponent factors to produce the disease, it is known that saprophytic colonization of the mucous membrane by C. albicans does not need the host to be immune compromised, since it is detected in immune competent individuals (Garcia and Blanco, 2000).